I find myself traveling frequently
while in India, going to the cities where Ananda's work in progressing,
presenting programs and helping the local leaders. Over the last two
weekends I was in both Singapore and Bangalore, two vary different places, doing
a program in each. One city is extremely tidy and efficient (guess which
one) while the other is extremely congested and in need of a good scrub.
Seemingly very different on the outside, I nevertheless felt "at
home" and enjoyed my stay in each. I was thinking about why. The
answer is because in both places, I found devotees and gurubhais.
it is the people, not the place, that makes me want to return. Paramhansa
Yogananda concluded his autobiography with the words, "God has given this
monk a large family." His presence shines through his large family
of disciples in a similar way everywhere, no matter the country, making us feel
at home everywhere. Similarly, when we try to see God in every
circumstance, we feel His joy always with us.
With that thought, I wrote the
following post on the topic of "Dispassion" for our anandaindia.org
website
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Dispassion
Dispassion
While visiting the city of Puri
many years ago, Swami Kriyananda spoke with a venerable sadhu, said to be one
hundred and thirty years old. Obviously a man of spiritual
accomplishment, the sadhu was an exponent of the path of extreme vairagya, the practice
of stern renunciation of the material world. During their conversation,
Swamiji asked, “What about a beautiful sunset? Is even that something to
ignore and not enjoy?” “Yes!” replied the sadhu sternly, “Even that!”
Swami Kriyananda was much too respectful
to comment. He recognized such total dispassion as a valid path for those
inclined to follow it but in his own mind, he could not but think, “How
dry!” His own guru, Paramhansa Yogananda, had been very different in his
approach, enjoying everything as an expression of God’s beauty.
Yoganandaji saw God as manifested
in all creation: the earth, stars and in other people. His disciples once
discovered him in a state of blissful ecstasy on the lawn of Mt. Washington
Estate, his ashram home in Los Angeles. “You don’t know how beautiful it
all is,” he marveled, turning about and gesturing toward everything around
him. Where the disciples saw but trees, buildings and sky, the master saw
everything as brilliant, beautiful, expanding light, colorfully pulsating with
Divine Mother’s bliss.
Swami Kriyananda expressed
renunciation in much the same manner as his guru. His nature emphasized
positive expansion of one’s sympathies, not rejection. In all of
life’s experiences, he found inspiration which he expressed through music, art,
writing or discourse. “See Divine Mother in everything, be Her willing
instrument and share with others,” was his advice. What we need to
renounce is ego, the selfish attitude that thinks first of “me and mine,” and
the tendency to follow our personal likes and dislikes to the exclusion of what
is right and proper.
The sadhu’s path was one of
dispassion, a necessary attitude toward whatever draws us away from God.
To this, add love to keep our hearts from becoming dry. An intense love for all
things divine will bring, unbidden, a natural disinclination toward that which
separates us from our beloved. As Master once said to Swami Kriyananda,
“When ecstasy comes, all else goes.”
